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MacDonald DN, Bedford SA, Olafson E, Park MTM, Devenyi GA, Tullo S, Patel R, Anagnostou E, Baron-Cohen S, Bullmore ET, Chura LR, Craig MC, Ecker C, Floris DL, Holt RJ, Lenroot R, Lerch JP, Lombardo MV, Murphy DGM, Raznahan A, Ruigrok ANV, Smith E, Shinohara RT, Spencer MD, Suckling J, Taylor MJ, Thurm A, Lai MC, Chakravarty MM. Characterizing Subcortical Structural Heterogeneity in Autism. bioRxiv 2023:2023.08.28.554882. [PMID: 37693556 PMCID: PMC10491091 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.28.554882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
Autism presents with significant phenotypic and neuroanatomical heterogeneity, and neuroimaging studies of the thalamus, globus pallidus and striatum in autism have produced inconsistent and contradictory results. These structures are critical mediators of functions known to be atypical in autism, including sensory gating and motor function. We examined both volumetric and fine-grained localized shape differences in autism using a large (n=3145, 1045-1318 after strict quality control), cross-sectional dataset of T1-weighted structural MRI scans from 32 sites, including both males and females (assigned-at-birth). We investigated three potentially important sources of neuroanatomical heterogeneity: sex, age, and intelligence quotient (IQ), using a meta-analytic technique after strict quality control to minimize non-biological sources of variation. We observed no volumetric differences in the thalamus, globus pallidus, or striatum in autism. Rather, we identified a variety of localized shape differences in all three structures. Including age, but not sex or IQ, in the statistical model improved the fit for both the pallidum and striatum, but not for the thalamus. Age-centered shape analysis indicated a variety of age-dependent regional differences. Overall, our findings help confirm that the neurodevelopment of the striatum, globus pallidus and thalamus are atypical in autism, in a subtle location-dependent manner that is not reflected in overall structure volumes, and that is highly non-uniform across the lifespan.
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Affiliation(s)
- David N. MacDonald
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University
- Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
| | - Saashi A. Bedford
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University
- Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
| | - Emily Olafson
- Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
- Department of Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences
| | - Min Tae M. Park
- Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
| | - Gabriel A. Devenyi
- Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
| | - Stephanie Tullo
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University
- Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
| | - Raihaan Patel
- Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
- Department of Biological and Biomedical Engineering, McGill University
| | | | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
| | | | - Lindsay R. Chura
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
| | - Michael C. Craig
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
- National Autism Unit, Bethlem Royal Hospital, London, UK
| | - Christine Ecker
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, GoetheUniversity
| | - Dorothea L. Floris
- Methods of Plasticity Research, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich,Switzerland
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Rosemary J. Holt
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
| | - Rhoshel Lenroot
- Dept.of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of New Mexico
| | - Jason P. Lerch
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford
| | - Michael V. Lombardo
- Laboratory for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @UniTn, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
| | | | - Armin Raznahan
- Developmental Neurogenomics Unit, Human Genetics Branch, National Institute of MentalHealth
| | - Amber N. V. Ruigrok
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
- Division of Psychology and Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester
| | - Elizabeth Smith
- Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
| | - Russell T. Shinohara
- Penn Statistics in Imaging and Visualization Center, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
- Center for Biomedical Image Computing and Analytics, Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
| | - Michael D. Spencer
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
| | - John Suckling
- Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
| | - Margot J. Taylor
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children
- Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children
| | - Audrey Thurm
- Section on Behavioral Pediatrics, National Institute of Mental Health
| | | | - Meng-Chuan Lai
- Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children
- The Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth & Family Mental Health and Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
- Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine
| | - M. Mallar Chakravarty
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University
- Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
- Department of Biological and Biomedical Engineering, McGill University
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